Reply #18: K & R - no surprise. They were already doing that on a smaller scale [View All]

[Nothing Without Hope]

in the 2004 election. Remember the news coverage and the suits about election fraud by Dems? This was doubtless set up just in case they needed the "everybody does it" distraction - but the supine corporate media and very speedy Kerry concession made it unnecessary for the GOP to push "Dem election fraud" harder than they did. They were ready to go and did do some stories, which of course were obediently picked up by the corporate media echo chamber. We ddin't hear about the true issue of GOP election fraud except by a few brave and lonely souls like Keith Olbermann; what little we heard was these stories of how the powerful, evil Democrats were paying evil black welfare criminals to pad voter registration for the Democrats by registering multiple times. Why, that might have accounted for as much as several hundred unfair Dem votes!!! :sarcasm: Note that they inserted GOP crowd-rousing elements of "black welfare Democrats" as the supposed perpetrators. They were clearly ready to roll with this a s a big defensive/distractive story. Unfortunately I didn't save links to those stories, but I sure remember them and I bet you do too. There was a lot on this at the time - I even remember hearing it endlessly on NPR - but I didn't save threads. Here are three later links related to aspects of this issue; somewhere there needs to be (maybe there already is?) a big, organized collection of these stories of GOP setting up complaints of Dem election fraud so we know their past methods. They will probably use some of them again and it's best to be prepared and have the public prepared too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1962690
thread title (12/2/05): AP: FBI Plants Sham (Democratic) Candidate in W.Va. Race
Primary link & excerpt from archived thread:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=157&sid=134990

FBI Plants Fake Candidate in W.Va. Race

By LAWRENCE MESSINA
Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Thomas Esposito's campaign for the Legislature seemed to be following the usual pattern. The longtime Democratic mayor issued press releases, raised money and bought newspaper ads. Signs bearing his name popped up in yards around rural Logan County.

But less than a month before the May 2004 primary election, Esposito dropped out, saying he had to withdraw because of his ailing mother-in-law.

The real reason surfaced only later: The FBI had planted Esposito among the field of candidates to help find evidence of vote-buying in southern West Virginia.

... The chief judge of West Virginia's southern federal court district condoned the tactic Thursday in an election fraud case against Perry French Harvey Jr., the man who allegedly accepted the $2,000.

(snip)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2059121
thread title (1-22-06): WP,pg1: Politics Alleged In (DOJ Civil Rts Div.) Voting Cases (big story)
Primary link & excerpt from archived thread:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012200984_pf.html

Politics Alleged In Voting Cases: Justice Officials Are Accused of Influence

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 23, 2006; Page A01

The Justice Department's voting section, a small and usually obscure unit that enforces the Voting Rights Act and other federal election laws, has been thrust into the center of a growing debate over recent departures and controversial decisions in the Civil Rights Division as a whole.

Many current and former lawyers in the section charge that senior officials have exerted undue political influence in many of the sensitive voting-rights cases the unit handles. Most of the department's major voting-related actions over the past five years have been beneficial to the GOP, they say, including two in Georgia, one in Mississippi and a Texas redistricting plan orchestrated by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) in 2003.

The section also has lost about a third of its three dozen lawyers over the past nine months. Those who remain have been barred from offering recommendations in major voting-rights cases and have little input in the section's decisions on hiring and policy.

"If the Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division is viewed as political, there is no doubt that credibility is lost," former voting-section chief Joe Rich said at a recent panel discussion in Washington. He added: "The voting section is always subject to political pressure and tension. But I never thought it would come to this."

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his aides dispute such criticism and defend the department's actions in voting cases. "We're not going to politicize decisions within the department," he told reporters last month after The Washington Post had disclosed staff memoranda recommending objections to a Georgia voter-identification plan and to the Texas redistricting....

(snip)

The third link I'll give is from a July 5, 2006 BradBlog story on exactly the kind of thing you're predicting for future elections:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3031
BLOGGED BY Brad ON 7/5/2006 12:05PM

CLAIM: GOP Likely to Charge E-Vote Fraud This November; DNC Advised to Wake Up! Quickly!

BTCNews' Weldon Berger makes a very astute observation in an article posted Monday (http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1409) suggesting "Republicans set to cry 'Foul!' in November elections."

He contends (with a suggested measure of inside skinny) that the GOP will use the evidence and arguments of election integrity advocates, such as yours truly and others, in making their case that Electronic Voting Machine fraud may have occurred in certain close elections this November if needed.

Berger's observations are well supported by both common sense and history of the GOP — who, unlike Dems, have proven themselves more than willing to pull out any and all stops to fight a close election and even go to court to throw out valid votes whenever necessary if that's what they need to do to win. The GOP doesn't have the same fear gene that curses Dems when it comes to standing up and fighting when they feel they've been robbed (or, perhaps more appropriately with the GOP, opportunistically announcing they've been robbed even when they haven't been.)

Berger's column ought to serve as a siren call for the DNC to wake the hell up about what's going on here. Before it's too late. If it isn't already.

(snip - Brad goes on to critique the Berger report - he gives a link - and make recommendations)

Closer to the 2004 election I remember heavy reporting of a story about supposed Democratic vote fraud based on individuals doing on a small scale what the GOP did in an organized way on a massive scale - voter registration fraud. Unfortunately I didn't save those links. I do recall that we were at first excited to hear of a Justice Department probe into election fraud only to find that - of course - it was about this supposed Democratic election fraud. The bushies own the Justice Department and all branches of criminal investigation and prosecution so they are not going to be examining the huge and systematic crimes that got them into power. Why the public fails to see this is beyond me but most in fact still have blind faith in the justice and electoral systems.

Oh yeah, they're definitely tooling up to set up the next election blowing the horn of "Democratic election fraud." And the damned bought-and-paid-for corporate press will follow the lead just as they did before. And the American publlic? Well, most of them are still in denial about the LAST times the election was stolen.